Picaro
Picaro's JournalBurn!
This is what happens when you show yourself to be a complete clown and no one around the world has any respect for you.
Bet Kim Jong Un won't meet with him either.
The Dealmaker gets pawned again.
Let's see how Spicer spins this.
If this is true
If this is true… when is somebody going to do something about it?
I'm afraid Trump has put his finger on the fatal flaw in our Constitution. There's nothing in it about do overs, removal from office for anything other than incredible disability or via impeachment. When all branches of government are in the hands of a single party you no longer even have a functioning oligarchy. What you have is some strange version of a tyrranucsl Republic. We now resemble Kazakhstan more than we resemble what the founding fathers really had in mind. They intended our nation to be a highly functioning oligarchy where competing interests made sure that one party could not dominate the other. Because the Supreme Court was co-opted decades ago we now have a situation where the rules have been rewritten in the Republicans favor over and over and over again. It is hard to imagine anything happening based on what the FBI now knows happened.
Everybody is trying to solve the wrong problem
The problem everyone is trying to solve is the wrong problem. This applies to both left and right.
Everyone seems to think the problem is too few are covered by health insurance. Even the Republicans are trying to find some mechanism to make health insurance available to more people.
That is not the problem. The problem is health insurance itself.
If we continue to focus on health insurance we will never ever tackle access.
Majority rules
Republicans had a majority at the time that they stonewalled Merrick Garland. They assumed that they would retain the majority (which was a pretty good bet) so they would be able to prevent seating of the nominee.
Once Reid exercised the nuclear option it set a precedent for using it lagain. The filibuster has always been about keeping the majority from steam rolling the minority. But it's not something that can be found in the constitution and was really just a tradition. We now are living in an era where the majority can rule with an iron fist.
We've always been a democracy in name only. But right now I believe we are witnessing a complete death of the system. The party in power is rigging the game so fundamentally that it's going to be very very difficult to get power back from them.
While it horrifies me, I have to admit that the job that they have done gerrymandering all of the states that they controlled has been very impressive.
REDMAP ( The Republican gerrymandering project) has turned Texas into such a deep red state that I'm not sure even the massive demographic changes that are coming up are going to break us free. The Democrats in the state are almost completely neutered. The same has happened in North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois etc.
The problem is that they had a wonderful plan to seize power but they had no plan to govern. The Republicans don't have any ideas in terms of governance. All of their ideas are dedicated to the destruction of the current system.
As so many have pointed out, they are the party of "no". But add into this the fact that very few people in the US have any real understanding of their own government (whether state, local, federal) and you have a recipe for a tyrannical democratic system. System in which people have very little power at all.
This is going to be a very long and very hard fight. The Republicans, having turned the Supreme Court into a partisan body, know that they can do almost anything and give it a veneer of legality.
How can I make the country worse?
It is as if he gets up every morning and thinks how can I make the country worse today?
Can anyone out there think of a single positive thing that Trump has done since he has been in the office?
Some of what he does seems to be out of some sense of simple meanness. What a spoiled little rich brat he is at the age of 70 years old.
Shows how stupid he is
He is not required to offer an opinion on matters like these.
If he was pressed, he should have offered only that he didn't have enough data to have an opinion.
Instead, he dives right in and sides with the guy whose behavior has forced Fox to pay out millions to keep things semi-quiet.
He is truly unfit for the Presidency (or any other top management position in any public company).
All any salesperson has is their credibility
I've been a high level salesman and sold into the largest global accounts headquartered in the US. I was very, very successful.
The biggest weapon in my bag was my word--in other words my credibility.
When I went into sales I very quickly found out that there were only two types of sales people. The big talking braggarts (not always male) that would say or do anything to get the sale and the craftsman that quietly went about their work and brought in the big numbers.
I watched one of the best I've ever seen, JB, do his thing and it looked easy. He'd bring in a $50 million dollar contract and wouldn't even break a sweat. If he said something would happen it happened. The senior executives that wrote the big checks trusted him utterly.
That's who I wanted to be.
I recognize Trump as the bullshitter braggart.
Up until now he's been able to publicize successes and escape his failures. He just disappears them. He's been able to just leave his many, many failures behind.
Well, the world is watching. In under 3 months Trump has lost all credibility. Once you lose it you can only earn it back with hard work and focus.
I don't think the old man has it in him anymore. I think he's an empty suit. So do a lot of our adversaries.
This is bad position for the US to be in. One our adversaries is going to try him and us very soon. His weakness makes us weak and invites challenge.
Things are unfortunately going to get worse.
When in doubt escalate!
Trump knows only one mode--attack. Problem is that doesn't really work in a legislative setting and you have little or no leverage against the people you are trying to manipulate.
The, Republicans, under the brilliant generalship of Paul Ryan (Policy Wonk Extraordinaire) have created a lose/lose situation. Their constituents are furiously against repeal of the ACA without a plan that is better and cheaper. The "plan" they've come up with is not only not better but it is likely to not be anywhere remotely cheaper.
So, if they don't vote for this catastrophe they'll get primaried by the well funded manic right. If they do vote for it their voters will vote them out of office.
Neither one is attractive.
The Freedom Caucus will not be satisfied until we are right back to where we were before the ACA--pre-existing condition exclusions, maximum lifetime benefits, no keeping adult children on parents policies until 26--and no subsidies dammit! Anything else is rampant socialism.
The moderates (yes, they do still exist) would like to keep all the good things about the ACA, but just call it something else.
Trump will push and I'm pretty confident he's going to end up with egg on this face. Although I could be wrong and they may pass this out of the House. The Senate could be crazy enough to approve it.
Problem is even if this ends up on his desk and he signs it--it's pure poison. Welcome to politics, Donnie Boy!
Too bad Trump has no shame
Trump is a rich spoiled brat (even at 70) and has no sense of shame.
If he had a sense of shame he would have slunk off the world stage decade ago.
His subsequent performance with Angela Merkel is a case in point. He managed to act like a surly 13 year old during much of the visit. Even refusing to shake her hand.
Spot on
The only way the Democrats win in 2018 is by offering a stark contrast to the Republican agenda.
The problem is and has been that the Democratic Party seems to offer only a slight difference these days. The interests that fund them are often the same as those that fund the Republicans.
A key example. Even now, the Democrats are still doggedly defending the ACA, a result of an attempt at a plan the Republicans could and would sign on to. After all, the very genesis of the ACA was from a paper presented to the Heritage Foundation. A version of it was implemented by Romney in Massachusetts and proved very popular.
But the Republicans didn't sign on.
But rather than up the ante and go for single payer or the public option the Democrats are fighting a rear guard action to keep the ACA alive when it needs to be dramatically revamped.
Why? Well, because the Democrats are as beholden to the health insurance industry as any Republican.
The Republicans, however, seem unafraid to just blow everything all to hell.
The only two that are aggressively proposing real solutions to real problems are Bernie Sanders (not a Democrat) and Elizabeth Warren.
Those who do not propose do not dispose.
The Democrats need to start proposing bills that are radical and practical and make a lot of noise about them. What, after all, do we have to lose?
Profile Information
Name: Ernie FergusonGender: Do not display
Hometown: Plano, TX
Home country: USA
Current location: Plano, TX
Member since: Thu Apr 30, 2009, 11:22 AM
Number of posts: 1,517
